Arbiter Lancaster waited another moment until he had absolute silence, then cleared his throat. "And how long have you employers been aware of such...aliens?"
I did not want to get mad. I was trying to keep my cool, really I was. But he "aliened" again. On purpose, I'm sure of it. And there was something in the way he said "your employer" that pushed another button. "I believe it wasn't until our arrival a few months ago, Mr. Lancaster."
Mother has a habit of annoying people by intentionally tweaking their name to something other than what they said. I was about fourteen before I stopped thinking it might be rude and became sure it was. Nothing outwardly disrespectful, just a small sign that they did something to tick her off. I never really understood it completely until I did it to the arbiter. And I never realized the tiny, silly, childish rush she must have gotten every time she saw the signs that it hit home. With Lancaster, it was the twitchy eye thing again.
"What do you mean 'you believe'? I am aware of your level of clearance in the company. Don't tell me one of your status is so out of the loop that they don't know the very basics of knowledge in the organization. Or is that, perhaps, how StarTech operates, hm? Is it only those at the very top that really know..."
"Oh for heaven's sake, Al," said an IOC member a few seats away. He was frowning, as were most of the others. "Give it a rest."
The arbiter looked ready to skin the man alive. "You are speaking out of turn, representative Kudlow. I have not opened the forum..."
The man waved him off. "Well I have. Forum opened."
Lancaster sputtered. "But...this is..."
"All in favor?" Kudlow raised his hands. Every other IOC member on the panel quickly did the same. "All opposed?"
"I am! And since I am the elected arbiter of these proceedings..."
Kudlow looked at the arbiter like he was a sad, little muk'alog who followed him in from the swamp. "It's okay, Al. Relax."
Lancaster did not want to let it go. "Now see here, Edward. There is an established protocol for..."
Kudlow laughed. "Protocol? For what, exactly? For all the thousands of space children we stick in a cage for the world to gawk at so we can grill them about things they can't possibly know? There's no protocol for what we're doing here today."
I liked Edward Kudlow. I didn't care if in his real life he's a murdering bastard. In that room, he spoke up for me. For us. And that makes him my first friend on Earth.
Lancaster sat and brooded. I could tell he wanted to keep pressing, keep grilling me on his own line of questions. But he was a smart man, if nothing else. The whole room was completely behind Kudlow. All for their own reasons, I'm sure, but behind him and against Lancaster nonetheless. "This is highly unusual and will be addressed at our next session."
"Oh, I'm sure," said Kudlow with a smirk. "I have never known you to let anything rest." Before Lancaster could respond, Edward Kudlow turned to me and introduced himself. "I am here representing the Canadian IOC contingent, and I am very pleased to meet you. I apologize if members of this organization have forgotten the goal of these proceedings."
He was waiting for me to say something. Suddenly I was more uncomfortable, not less. Anger I could deal with. Lancaster's hostility got my own going. As Ashnahta always said, "If you're angry, you'll be at your best. Alert. Aware. Sharp. Always be angry around an enemy. Always."
Lancaster was clearly an enemy. But, as I've already said, Kudlow was not. And his kind voice and real smile my way made me feel weaker. Vulnerable. Watched. "I...it's okay. I guess I wouldn't really know what to say to me, either. You know, if I was in your shoes." It was awful. Horrible. I cringe when I think about it.
The press loved it. Reginald slapped my back and shook my hand later for it. "You nailed the innocent kid schtick, Jake. Nailed it!" I still felt like an ass, though.
Kudlow laughed. "Yes. What exactly do we say to one so young who has seen and done so much?" I felt my face turn redder as he spoke. But he's a smart one, that Kudlow. He could see how uncomfortable I was. "This is an abomination. He's the very dream we all share, ladies and gentlemen," he said, addressing the rest of the panel aside from Lancaster. "The very dream. Isn't he what we've all been working towards? He is the result of our laws and careful planning..."
Lancaster snorted. "As if they followed any of those!"
"Pft, a breach by one team working on their own. The boy's right. You didn't even read the reports, did you?"
"Of course I did!" Lancaster all but roared. "I'm just not foolish enough to believe what they're shoveling..."
"Ah, and that's the point, isn't it? That's what this has all been about." He was giving Lancaster a warning. I could see it in his eyes. It's that look that says 'I've got dirt on you and I'll spill if you don't play nice'. Ashnahta's secondary constantly gave her that look to keep her in line. I looked at Lancaster. He wasn't going to back down.
"Political suicide is the term we use," said Christophe with a great amount of happiness about it all later.
He wasn't going to back down. You could see it in everything about him. "One of us has to be the voice of reason in this insanity..."
"Al," said Kudlow in a warning tone. "We can continue this conversation later."
"Ah, behind closed doors, is that it, Ed? Is that what you are afraid of? What all of you are afraid of?" He stood then, sending his fancy chair skidding backward. The noise echoed in the now silent room. Everyone turned their attention from the weird space boy in the sani-box to the old man flipping out on the IOC panel. "They've got you, too, don't they?"
At that point, Arbiter Lancaster really lost his cool. That's what Dad would have said, and I wished he could have seen it. It really is something to watch someone make themselves go down in flames. He slammed his hand on the podium, making it rock and almost tip. "Damn it! I joined this panel twenty two years ago to make sure that this didn't happen. And that wasn't enough, was it? They got to you. They got to all of you!"
"Here we go..." said Kudlow, leaning back and folding his hands together to ride out the storm. And storm it did! A hurricane to rival those of Laak'sa, all from one man. One angry, confused, bitter old man.
"Not confused, Jake," explained Ralph later. "Maybe the last of a dying breed. Maybe that's why he was so loud about it. Like a star going nova. One great burst before they fizzle out." I didn't understand. "Look, kid. As I believe we've all been busting our humps to explain, there are many on this rock that are terrified of, well, everything. Space. Space men. Intergalactic war. Invasion. Asteroid collision..."
"That's crazy. None of that is even related!"
"Not to us. To you and me, who know the score. People are afraid of what they don't know."
"The Qitani didn't fear us."
"Of course they didn't! They had a whole year to study us before we even knew they were there. They watched our every move on v-2445. They knew who we were, what we wanted, where we came from. And most of all, they knew without a doubt that we weren't a threat. Think about it, Jake. If we landed there first, without any announcement, just landed as if we owned the place, you think that war hungry people would have welcomed us in? No way. And why?" I didn't know why. I couldn't imagine the Qitani in any other way than friendship. "Because we'd be a threat. Anything unknown is potentially harmful, right? And when the weight of the world is on your shoulders, when it's you making the snap decisions that have the potential to ruin an entire species, I'm telling you, you'd be a lot more like Lancaster than you want to believe."
"But why hate StarTech? We're the ones out there learning so we will know the threats."
"I like the 'we', Jake. When did that happen?" He gave me a smile and a wink. I ignored it. "We, as you say, are the ones that can open the doors to the madness. We're the gatekeepers of the threats. And there are many that see our efforts as a taunt, a tease. Like we're waving a red flag in front of a bull." I had no idea what that meant. "Fine. We're, uh...Oh, got it! We're wiggling a caa' fly in front of a gluk. Right there, right in front, always just a bit out of reach."